


What About the Others?

by BlueRoseGardener



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Homestuck Fan Session, SBURB
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 19:58:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7401796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueRoseGardener/pseuds/BlueRoseGardener
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story about another human session on Earth. What happened to the other sessions anyways? A chance to explore what might have happened in a session, that on the surface may have seemed more likely to succeed than the kids' and yet didn't. Why not? </p><p>This is just the first part. Not sure how many there will be in total.</p><p>Featuring all new characters with classpects not seen in comic.<br/>There might be romance later on. Who knows.<br/>But mostly it's about their adventure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What About the Others?

**Author's Note:**

> So, a few things. I'm going to try to follow the in comic rules as much as possible, with a small exception.  
> Classes are not gender divided. (In fact, Hussie has said in a tweet that it doesn't really matter, but it's deleted. So that evidence is gone. But either way you can just consider it artistic liscence.)  
> Pretty much other than that I won't be breaking canon on purpose.
> 
> Also, two of the characters are agender and use "they" as a singular pronoun, so I'll try to keep it from being confusing but that's just a heads up.
> 
> The style will be somewhere between a regular story and the comic style, with both pesterlogs and written description. Basically pesterlogs take the place of dialogue, so it's not that huge of a difference. 
> 
> You can turn off the formatting for the pesterlogs, but if a color in particular is hard to read please let me know so I can tweak it.

MidnightGarden: Did you download the game yet?  
CinnamonBeach: It’s still loading, relax.

Hua leaned back in his office chair to stare at the computer screen. It was flashing with some sort of downloading animation, nonsensical phrases flashing at the bottom. “Officiating Disks,” Judging Chalk Adaptors,” “Accelerating Straps,” and other ridiculous things like that. He supposed it was supposed to create a whimsical mood. Meh.

BubblegumPalace: Dude you are not going to believe what is happening! This is crazy!  
CB: What? You mean the game?  
BP: Yes!!! Omg Hua, turns out Alex can mess around with my house now I can finally have a fantasy tower like I always dreamed!  
CB: Yo really? Is that the main mechanic?  
BP: Uh so far? There are also these devices we can put down? But Alex said we should set up an area for them first, so we don’t block the door or anything! They want to set up a quote: "base of operations."  
CB: What do the devices do?   
BP: No clue!   


No offense, but he hoped the game didn’t turn out to be some version of the Sims. Not really his thing. To be frank, the reviews of the game online didn’t give you much to go on.  
Eh, whatever. Hua guessed they wanted to keep the details all secret or something.  
Hey, the game was done downloading.  


CB: Yo Gwen it’s done.   
MG: Okay sweet.   
CB: So I’m the server player right?   
MG: You should be! You downloaded the server program, right? 

He glanced at the case.

CB: Yep.   
MG: Okay cool! So let’s start by getting all the machines deployed.   
MG: Or is machines really the right word? Whatever.   
CB: Okay uh one sec. 

On screen, an interface was superimposed over a view of BR sitting impatiently in her room. Hua looked it over. So it seemed like he had some options for moving things around, shifting the camera, and like Briana had said, "revising" the house. The other things he didn’t quite get, Phernalia Registry, Grist Cache, Atheneum, and Alchemize? Well, the last one he could guess was some kind of crafting mechanic. 

CB: Which one has the devices?   
MG: Idk just click around until you find it.   


Okay… Phernalia Registry. That had some "devices" in it anyways.

\-----

Briana was pleading with Alex, but it wasn’t going well.

BubblegumPalace: Pleeeeeeeease build me a tower! It’s really important to meeeeeeeee  
VerdigrisTheater: You can type as many e’s as you like, but I’m not wasting resources on that! You are so silly ;P  
BP: But it’s super! Duper! Cool!   
VT: Maybe when we have more grist or whatever we can do silly things. But right now let’s stay focused, okaaaaay? (see, I can type lots of letters as well.)   
VT: Why don’t you start looking at those things I deployed to take your mind of it, hm? 

Briana sighed extra long, so that Alex could see her sighing, then slowly got up to take a look at all the stuff. She held up the card first. It seemed to have holes punched in it, which made her think of a rewards card that kept track of how many times you’d bough ice cream. Then there was the big thing with a tube, called the Cruxtruder apparently. To its right was the Totem Lathe (didn’t lathes carve wood or something?) and something called the Alchemiter. Alex has modified Briana’s house to add another room onto her room, and set everything up there. 

VT: The Totem Lathe looks like it has a slot in it. Can you put the card in there?   
BP: Sure, hold on. 

Briana fitted the card into the slot. It went in just fine, and the machine activated a laser. But nothing else seemed to happen.

BP: Do you think it’s supposed to carve something?   
VT: Probably a totem.   
BP: No duhhhhh Alex  
VT: Try messing with the other stuff. We’re wasting time.   
BP: Well it’s not like there’s a time limit  
VT: There might be, some comments online seem to say so. Idk it’s kind of unclear though. 

Okaaaay. Briana couldn’t get the Alchemiter to do anything. But the Cruxtruder looked like it had a lid. 

BP: I can’t get the Cruxtruder open, I think it’s stuck.   
VT: Well don’t force it.   
VT: Briana wait.   
VT: Briana what are you doing? 

Briana took out her metal poker from her PokerKind Strife Specibus, and wacked the top of the Cruxtruder.

\-----

SeafoamSanctuary: So what now? Skyler?   


Deon stared up at the glowing, flashing sphere in front of him as he waited for Skyler to respond.

LavenderCafe: Gimme a sec. Alex is messaging me. 

Deon held out his hand toward the sphere, but it moved away. Even reaching very slowly, it was no good. 

LC: Okay, so, Alex says we’re supposed to put something in it.   
SS: Something in it? Like what?   
LC: I don’t know just pick something!   
SS: If it’s important to the game, um, shouldn’t we think this through a little more?   
LC: Does it really matter?   
SS: Uh, kind of? Right?   
LC: Come on, we can figure it out whatever we get.   
SS: Okay wait, let me talk to VT and see if I can find out more. 

What was even in the room to put in? Deon looked around. Video games. Anime figurines. Some books. His bed—that would probably be too big though? 

SS: Okay so apparently some people are saying that you shouldn’t put anything in, some people are saying you definitely need to, and other people are adding that it should be humanoid so it can talk to you. Um. I guess it’s like a mentor or something?   
LC: I say put something in! We don’t want to miss out on a cool feature.   
SS: That makes sense I guess. 

Should he put in an anime figurine then? No no no, that would be way too embarrassing. The books weren’t "humanoid". Then he had some pictures of people? Would that count?  
Deon’s train of thought was interrupted as his phone message tone went off.

LC: Whatever, I can just decide for you if you can’t make up your mind.   
SS: Oh, that’s fine, sure. 

He was secretly relieved—at first. Then Skyler lifted up the broken fairy doll Skyler had hidden in the back of a shelf.

SS: Oh no not that that’s too embarrassing! I didn’t even like that as a kid!   
LC: Don’t worry! It’ll be cool to have like, a fairy mentor. Besides, you said I got to decide!   
SS: ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

There was no convincing Skyler once they got started. 

\-----

MidnightGarden: Hey Skyler, can you lay off Deon a little bit, you know he gets anxious when you pressure him.   
LavenderCafe: Chill, chill, everything’s chill.   
LC: Let’s focus on our own sessions. I promise to be nice to Deon, don’t worry.   
MG: Mm, but we are all really part of the same session. So… I am focusing on my own session. If you think about it. 

Gwen waited for a response, but didn’t get one. Oh well.  
Hua was trying to get her attention anyways.

CinnamonBeach: Hey Gwen what you doing?   
MG: Sorry, was dealing with Skyler. You know how they can get. Why were they paired with Deon again?   
CB: Eh, I think they asked to be, right?   
MG: Mm. 

The two of them had already "prototyped the kernel" as Deon had recommended. Gwen had decided to go with her old ripped mermaid plush. Not that she was obsessed with mermaids anymore… but they did have a certain nostalgia.

MG: The kernel isn’t talking, though. Wasn’t it supposed to?   
CB: I don’t know, ask Alex or Deon.   
CB: Don’t worry though, I think we’re doing pretty well on time.   
MG: On the other hand, we don’t know how long this is going to take. I’m going to start working on the next step.   
CB: All right, sounds good. Nothing much for me to do then.   
MG: Nah, you should get someone to be your server player. I want to start connecting the chain.   
CB: Ah, okay I guess. I was looking forward to doing nothing.   
MG: ttyl

Once she’d retrieved the kernel and the cruxite, a counter had been activated. It looked like she had 50 minutes.  
Okay, so Deon said that Briana had used the totem lathe and punched card to carve something on the cruxite, but then couldn’t figure out what to do next.  
Her sprite followed her, still speaking in gibberish, as she carried the cruxite over. First, cruxite into position. Then slide the card into the Totem Lathe and… done. Looked good, a dark blue, smoothly carved "totem."  
So, probably they had to use the Alchimiter next, since it was the only device they hadn’t worked with yet. Putting it down on the platform itself didn’t do anything. But there was kind of a mini pad over by the controls—and the cruxite fit perfectly.  
On the platform a dark blue book appeared. It wasn’t made of paper, but whatever glass-like material the cruxite was made of. It seemed like maybe it could open, but it had a strap holding it closed.

Two new messages:

CB: Lol I have even more time than you: 3 hours.   
CB: 3. whole. hours. 

SS: Hey, did you figure out the next step yet? I think everyone is caught up to Briana now. 

Gwen responded to Deon first.

MG: Yeah, you have to put it onto the platform. It gives you a book that won’t open.   
MG: I guess you have to do something with that next.   
SS: Oh, okay cool. I’ll let the others know.   
MG: Hey who is Hua’s server player? He just told me he has 3 hours so I guess that means he got out the kernel.   
SS: What, 3 hours? I only got 40 minutes. How did he get so much time?   
MG: Idk isn’t it random?   
SS: Maybe? Maybe there’s a pattern. Someone else should figure it out, I guess.   
SS: Ugh, Skyler is messaging me again.   
SS: They want me to get going I’m sure. I’m just trying to be helpful to everyone else, you know--like you do on teams. They make me so anxious.   
MG: Yeah, I know, but don’t lose heart or anything, okay? You’re doing great.   
MG: I really appreciate all the information you’re sending us.   
MG: No problem.   
SS: I mean, I didn’t really do anything, like, I haven’t actually figured anything out myself I’m just passing long what the others did…

\-----

LavenderCafe: Hey Bri  
LC: Hey  
LC: Hey be my server player I want to get in the game it’s boring just helping Deon.   
LC: Uh, no offense to Deon. It would be boring no matter who it was  
LC: I guess everyone is getting a different item, but no one can figure out what to do with theirs?   
LC: Briana?   
BubblegumPalace: Omg Sky hey!  
BP: Sure I’ll be your server player!   
BP: But honestly I’m kind of trying to figure out the next step? Like you mentioned?   
LC: Yeah sure just do that after I get to start playing. It won’t take too long.   
BP: Hmmmmm I’ve got a better idea! How about you help me figure out what to do next, and theeeeeennnnn I set you up.   
BP: I had 60 minutes but now it’s down to like 40 and idk how many steps are left?   
LC: Bri come on please  
BP: Okay, so what I have is like, a puzzle box?   
BP: But... it's already solved?   
BP: So idk I guess I'm done but nothing has happened  
LC: Are you sure it's completely solved?   
BP: I'm preeettty sure Sky. It's all lined up and everything  
LC: Well you’re going to have to figure it out. Clearly you have to do SOMETHING else.  
LC: You’re going to have to be serious with this or you’re going to run out of time  
LC: And then you can’t be my server player  
LC: And we’ll all probably lose the game  
BP: ffffffiiiiiiinnnneeeee

What was Deon up to? They glanced at the screen. Still on his phone, apparently. He was ignoring Skyler’s messages, they knew it.  
Skyler used the move feature of the game, and threw a towel in his face.

SeafoamSanctuary: Skyler what is the big deal?   
LC: You’re going to run out of time if you just talk on your phone the whole time.   
SS: I’m caught up with everyone! I’m doing fine.   
LC: Yeah, but Bri has already figured out hers she just has to do it.   
SS: You could try helping instead of yelling at me…  
LC: I’m not yelling, I’m ENCOURAGING.   
LC: But anyways, what do you do with a lamp? You turn it on. Duh.   
SS: Yeah, but the chain doesn’t work. 

He demonstrated by yanking on the lamp chain a few times. 

LC: Whoops, gotta go, Briana is messaging me! Maybe she’s ready to set me up.   
SS: Skyler wait ahhh you’re already gone aren’t you

\-----

Alex twiddled their pen between their fingers as they watched Briana stare at the box again. Ah, ThrowingPenKind was fun. They got to use pens as literal weapons: "The pen is mightier than the sword" and all that; it had a nice poetry to it.  
It looked like since they were the server for Briana, Briana was the server for Skyler, Skyler was the server for Deon, Deon was the server for Hua, and Hua was the server for Gwen; there was only one person left to be Alex's server.

VerdigrisTheater: Looks like you’ll be my server, Gwen.   
MidnightGarden: Yes it does!   
MG: Ah, sorry for taking so long. I’ve just been trying to get this book open. I tried to force it with my Clear Umbrella, but it’s not really meant for prying things open.   
MG: Besides I get the feeling I’m not supposed to force it. *shrug*  
VT: Please, don’t worry about it. I understand things seem to be moving very quickly.   
VT: Perhaps just install the sever copy when you get a chance?   
MG: Sure, I can do that.   
VT: Oh!   
MG: What’s up?   
VT: Hold on. 

Suddenly seeming frustrated, Briana spun the pieces of the box around, affectively un-solving it. Suddenly there was a flash of light, and the screen went dark. Had Briana somehow failed? She still had time left though... As Alex peered at the screen anxiously, however, it brightened again to show Briana standing, a little bewildered, in the base room.  
But the windows were still dark, that was kind of strange. Alex zoomed out to see…

Well, it looked like another planet.


End file.
